Let Chris and Trish Meyer share with you two of the core secrets required to become an efficient After Effects user: understanding the render order (the internal order of operations After Effects uses when calculating masks, effects, transformation, track mattes, and layer styles) and the use of multiple compositions where a composition may be nested into one or more other comps. This makes it easier to group layers, efficiently re-use a common element to quickly accommodate client changes, pan around large composites of multiple layers, and solve render order issues. The After Effects Apprentice videos on lynda. com were created by Trish and Chris Meyer and are designed to be used on their own and as a companion to their book After Effects Apprentice.

Topics include:Grouping layers by nesting and pre-composingIdentifying and solving render order issuesNavigating composition hierarchiesEditing a precomp while viewing the result in another compositionPreserving the frame rate of a nested composition